Talkin' 'Bout the Weather

I hate living in Tennessee when it comes to thunderstorms. In all the years I've lived here it's very rare to get just a regular thunderstorm like I'm used to from living in the Northeast. The majority of storms all seem to be severe and after experiencing a tornado - any severe thunderstorm weather freaks me out and River too.

Poor dog...since she can sense the weather so much more than we can I can tell without hearing a weather report if severe weather is coming b/c she gets very anxious and clings to my side. If a weather alert goes out and I have to put her harness on her ( in order to be able to grab her quickly if need be) she really gets all panicky. Tiggy on the other hand - completely oblivious unless there's a warning out and I have to stick her in her cat carrier so I know w here she is if I need to grab her and River and go in the downstairs closet.

Life is certainly much different here in that respect. The meteorologists back in the northeast can't compare to the ones down here. I actually should call them weather people b/c I don't think they could do half of what the meteorologists do down here on a daily basis with all the crazy weather. Sam Champion from wabc in NY comes to mind - what an idiot, he's just there for eye candy which is fine b/c it's not like you get a threat of tornados often in NYC. I'll take the homely looking meteorologist down here who'll pin point exactly which streets a possible tornado is headed for.

Tonight's one of those possible bad nights. All the bad weather seems to be passing north of here. One thing I truly can't stand is having to walk River when there's a bad storm.

If only she'd learn to use the toilet.

Crazy Work

In a few years I'm hopefully going to pass whatever state bar exam I need to take and I'll be a practicing lawyer. One thing for sure is I do not want to be the type of lawyer my brother is. My bro is a federal prosecutor. First of all, I have no interest in criminal law whatsoever. I want to work in entertainment law. Secondly, my bro was still in his office last night at midnight preparing for a trial he has that started today.

In my prior career in labor management/human resources I found myself still working in the office at 1:30am at times due to whatever problem came up and it drove me absolutely crazy. This job was by no means 9-5 and I wasn't being properly compensated for the insane hours and travel that I had to do.

I do realize being a lawyer is not going to be 9-5 but in due time I'll be properly compensated for it. Also, I highly doubt I will find myself working at midnight in the office as often as my brother does (this happens before every trial) because if I can avoid the inside of a court room I will be one happy camper.

Another big difference is I will more than likely enjoy what I am doing which was not the case when I was working in labor mgmt.

The True Idiot

The Red Sox call themselves the idiots - well I think Curt Shilling is the true idiot. He pitched in last year's post season with such a severe tendon injury in his ankle that he had to have a surgical procedure before each game he pitched in order to pitch - against all medical advice. Yes of course you want to be a part of the post season but if it's going to possibly jeapordize your career you just don't do it. Shilling wanted to be a martyr, he wanted all the cameras on him - he's a known camera and media hog.

Shilling already had a world series ring with the Diamondbacks - the risk just wasn't necessary and went against all reason.

Now idiot Shilling is on the disabled list because of a severe bone bruise to that same surgically repaired ankle. The bruise was so bad that it's sad that if he had continued to pitch Shilling would've broken the bone. Shilling and the Red Sox insist the bone bruise isn't related to the ankle injury - DUH! Of course it is. He didn't get hit in the ankle or fall on it on anything.

Shilling's era is 7.14 - yeah he's been real effective. When he eventually comes back off the DL I hope the idiot continues to be just as effective.

KC Ain't What It Used To Be

Remember when George Brett played for the KC Royals? The hemorroids....the pine tar bat? I can remember way back when, when the KC Royals used to be a good team. This was back in the late 70s, early 80s when George Brett was playing 3rd for them.

Fast forward to the present.....KC is the worst team in baseball and has been horrible for quite some time. It's only 20 games into the season for them and they are 11 games out of 1st place already! They are 5-15. What a shame to see a team be so bad. I feel bad for the fans of KC and Pirate fans, and Brewer fans, D-Ray fans....fans of all sucky teams whose owners just make horrible decisions. It is possible to field a competitive team without having a $200 million dollar payroll - look at the Minnesota Twins.

Would You Like Some Flesh Chunks With Your Water?

Yes, I know the title sounds total gross but I just read an article that totally grossed me out that dealt with that. It seems that in Carroll, Iowa they have found "mysterious chunks of flesh that are clogging the city's water lines." EEEEEWWWWWWWW!!!!!

That's enough to get me to drink and bathe in bottled water for life if I lived in Carroll, Iowa. City officials say that drinking water wasn't affected and that it's safe to drink. I'm sorry, if I lived there I wouldn't believe that crap for two seconds.

Wasn't there a CSI episode where they found a decomposing body in the sewars clogging up things?

CSI:Iowa

Grrrrrrr - right wing morons

I love my Uncle to death but he is a right wing, Rush Limbaugh parroting moron. Now, don't get the wrong impression - I am not a democratic, nor am I any kind of liberal. I am also not a republican - I think both parties are idiots. However, unlike my Uncle, I keep myself educated of what going on in both sides politically and I make my own opinions from that. My Uncle derives all of his information from basically three sources - Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly. When your only source of information is from politically driven blowhard hacks and you don't gather enough info from all sides and/or from somewhat objective news sources......and you also just parrot what the hacks spew...... and you don't have an opinion derived from any kind of independent thought - you're just a parrot........SHUT UP!

If you live in my Uncle's world, high oil prices are just a conspiracy by OPEC. OPEC being almost at capacity, the demand for light crude which is crude oil that our gas if made from has gone up something like 40% since last year due to China guzzling up gas like there's no tomorrow, and let's not forget, the simple economic laws of supply and demand, oil futures market influence on prices today, etc. etc etc. - it's all just a conspiracy - uh huh.

Then there's the issue of illegal immigration being so out of control.....our borders being like swiss cheese, blah blah. According to my Uncle - that's the democrats problem, uhh - which party is and has been in control for the past few yrs? You can't blame the democrats for this and that when your President, the Senate and the House are Republican run. Off the top of my head I don't know the numbers but I recall Pres. Bush promising something like 2000 new border patrol agents for the Mexican border for this year and only delivered about 10% of that. Aren't we supposed to be fighting Al Qaida and making our country safe? Yet we're in Iraq creating more and more terrorists there everyday and doing nothing about our borders.

Forget objective, independent thought - I'm going get all my information from a drug addicted hypocrite and take his word for the gospel.

Poor Nomar

nomar, originally uploaded by LykosAlpha.

OUCH!

OUCH!

This is part of a recent AP article:

Garciaparra out 2-to-3 months


By R.B. FALLSTROM
AP Sports Writer

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Chicago Cubs shortstop Nomar Garciaparra will be sidelined at least two-to-three months because of a torn left groin.

Garciaparra was placed on the 15-day disabled list Thursday, one day after he got hurt while leaving the batter's box during a game against St. Louis. Cubs trainer Mark O'Neal said the muscle pulled away from the bone.

The Cubs, doctors and Garciaparra will decide in the next 10 days whether an operation is needed.

"The surgery is really going to be determined by is it something that Nomar wants to do," O'Neal said. "We're trying to make a determination of what would be the most predictable outcome."

If Garciaparra opts for surgery, O'Neal said the procedure should be done fairly soon so the muscle heals properly.


All I have to say after I read that is - "Damn!" Muscle pulled away from the bone - yikes! That has to be friggin painful. Nomar, get well soon.

ZZZZzzz

I'm so tired and I want to take a nap but I can't. I'm waiting for the exterminator to show up. I don't have any major trouble with creepy crawlies but since it's warmed up I'm seeing a lot of spiders and I HATE SPIDERS. Thankfully the complex sends the exterminator around at no charge.

I went for a sleep test last night. What a bizarro experience. The technician applied all of these sensors to my head, face, chest and legs and I had all sorts of wires extending from all of those sensors. I also had two straps going across my body. Not only that, but the sensors on my face and head were attached with airplane model glue!

It took me forever to fall asleep with all that crap attached to me. It was also a little creepy to know that I was being videotaped while I was sleeping. I had to be there at 7pm but they didn't expect me to fall asleep at that time - whew. I attempted to fall asleep at 11pm but I tossed and turned for over an hour at least. I woke up a bajillion (that's my official number) times during the night and sleeping on my side was next to impossible b/c all of the wires would kind of pull. When the tech woke me up at a little after 6am I wanted to die b/c I had hardly slept. According to the tech though I slept enough for them to get enough info that they needed. I'll find out the results in a little over a week.

If I had any trouble waking up that was solved by the technician having to use rubbing alcohol to get the airplane glue off of my hair, scalp and face.

It's amazing though - my crap insurance doesn't cover prescription drugs that aren't generic but this sleep test which runs about $1600.00 is covered 100% - go figure

Where will I go?

Well, I was wrong about acceptance letters not coming in a regular sized business envelope. I got another acceptance (whoopee) from a law school in southern California.

I wasn't really impressed with the acceptance letter - there was no information about financial aid with it or anything really. Also, no offer of money to go there.

I still have many to hear from but so far it looks like I'm going to MA.

WTF?

I'm so shocked I don't even know what to think. I was just browsing through the website of my hometown rag, I mean newspaper (The Staten Island Advance) and I came across an article that reported how my in my old neighborhood, lawns had been littered with anti-semitic pamphlets.

"The two-sided two-page pamphlets featured an illustration of a man with a large nose and the body of a snake decorated with Stars of David and text that denigrated "The Jew."

The second side targeted gay marriage, and the other page gave information about joining the Kentucky-based Ku Klux Klan offshoot that sponsored the hate-filled messages."

It immediately made me think of this time in elementary school during the winter when this neighborhood asshole pushed me down, spit on my head (thank god for winter hats) and called me a dirty kike. For some reason, I don't know why, I never told my parents.

Anyway, aside from that lone asswipe, my old neighborhood (parents still live there) is not known for being anti-semitic. Anti everything else probably, but not ant-semitic. There's no Klan in my neighborhood - it's totally ridiculous. They need to find the assholes who made up the pamplets and distributed them and put them in Rikers. Then, announce that they're associated with the Klan and let the non-white gangs take care of them.

Drive Ins

One cool thing about living in the South is that there is an abundance of drive in movie theaters. Before I moved down here I think I had only been to a drive in twice - once as a little kid and then in high school - to a drive-in in NJ that closed not long after.

There aren't any drive-ins in the NYC/NJ metro area anymore. It's a shame because since regular movie theaters are ridiculously expensive, drive-ins are the way to go. Sure, you don't get the good movie theater sound system but for about $5.00 admission for seeing a double feature, how can you beat that? Plus, the concessions are very inexpensive compared to regular theaters ($1.00 for a small popcorn at a theater near here) and they offer more than just popcorn and candy - pizza, hamburgers, hotdogs, etc - all relatively inexpensive.

Aside from the cheap outing, in most instances I prefer going to a drive-in. You can talk if you want without anyone shusshing you, and if you've got a sunroof or are sitting in a chair outside your car while wearing headphones, you can watch the movies under the stars. Can't beat that.

Have you seen me?

These law schools are driving me nuts. Yeah, it's great that I got a great scholarship offer from one but I can't make a decision until I've heard back from every place that I've applied. It's mid-April what are these schools waiting for?
GRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I hate checking the mail everyday and not receiving anything other than my copy of the Wall Street Journal, bills (double GRRRRRR) and those annoying fliers - "Have you seen me?"

They need to go back to milk cartons instead of the plastic jugs and put the missing people/kids on the milk cartons b/c no one looks at those fliers in the mail. At least someone will look at the milk carton over their breaksfast.

How many ways can we humiliate our pets?

dog in raincoat, originally uploaded by LykosAlpha.

And I thought I've humiliated my dog Poor dog!

baby gorilla

baby gorilla, originally uploaded by LykosAlpha.

Aww, look at the baby gorilla. Magilla gorilla, gorilla for sale!

Heeeeeeere Kitty Kitty Kitty

black-and-white-cat, originally uploaded by LykosAlpha.

The kitty that was trapped in the apt. next door that I let out has decided that I'm it's new buddy. The little kitty kinda looks like the cat in the picture but it's a lot younger and cuter.

The kitty ( don't know whether it's a he or a she I think it might be a she) sleeps underneath my window and spends the majority of the day hanging out on my front patio.

I wish I could take the cat in but one more pet would be one too many.

The kitty is so friendly. It tried to sit in my lap the other day. My own damn cat won't even do that.

Klaus Von Volkswagen

klaus, originally uploaded by LykosAlpha.

Cars.....so necessary if you don't live in Manhattan. Extremely necessary if you live in TN.

Klaus Von Volkswagen is my mode of transportation. Since the Nazis at my apt. complex took away all access to the hose hookups outside our buildings and I can't wash Klaus for free, Klaus has gotten filthy.

Car washes are expensive and since Klaus is silver I let him get a little too dirty. I found this stuff on the internet - waterless car washing stuff and I used it today. I've used a product like this before and it worked great. This product in particular worked awesome and for a fairly decent sized bottle it was only $6.50. I barely used 1/6 of the bottle so it's so worth it. I'll definately order more of it.

I chose silver as the color of my car b/c before I had black and a dark navy like color and they showed every ounce of dirt and I figured silver would hide blemishes better. My silver car has so many friggin' scratches and dents it's unbelievable. I bought some touch up paint and this is gonna be a hell of a project.

When you pay about $20,000 for something, lifetime paint touch up should be included in the deal.

cat poop

cat poop, originally uploaded by LykosAlpha.

No that is not a picture of a kitty litter cake. As far as I know that is a pic of real cat poop. The reason for the pic of cat poop is as follows....

This morning I was walking River and noticed a kitten in the window of the apt. next door. I was kind of confused on seeing this kitten in the window because I was certain it was the same stray black and white patched kitten that likes to hang out around my front patio.

When I got back to my apt. I called the apt. office and asked if someone had moved into that apt. I was told no and that no one was set to move in until 5/1. I informed the woman on the other end that she had a feline tenant and that the kitten had probably been stuck in there since early Thursday (I noticed the door open a bit Thurs. nite but thought maybe someone had moved in and left it to go to their car or something. Maintenance must've left the door open earlier in the day and the cat went in seeking shelter from the pouring rain we had all day). Woman on the other end of the phone told me she'd go and let the cat out. That was at 11:30am.

6:30 pm, I go to walk River again and as I walk past the apt., black and white kitty is still in the window. I couldn't believe that stupid uncaring bitch didn't let the damn kitten out of that apt! I brought River back to the house and went over to see if the door was unlocked. Thank god it was and I let the kitten out. The kitten was so glad to see me, meowing away. Poor thing had no food or water for two days.

I got her some food and water and she was on her merry way. If I hadn't let her out she would've been there until Monday at the earliest b/c the apt. offices are closed on Sunday.

Thank god the kitten was in the window so knew that she was still in there.

Monday I am going to go to the apt. offices and tell the mgr. off. I hope that kitten shit and peed all over that apt. with it's newly installed carpeting. If I see her when I go to walk River later maybe I'll let her in there for the nite, leave the faucet on and let her back out tomorrow. Let her crap and pee some more!

Meowoof!

catdog, originally uploaded by LykosAlpha.

My cat acts like a dog and my dog acts like a cat. I went out tonight and was gone for about 7 or 8 hours. When I got home and was getting out of the car Tiggy (cat) was in the bedroom window (it was open) and was pacing back and forth in the window and meowing at me. When I first heard the meowing I was confused b/c it sounded like Tiggy but I couldn't see her in the window at first. Only until I saw her dark tail against the white mini-blinds did I realize it was her. She's never meowed at me from the window like that before.

As soon as I got in the house Tiggy was at the bottom of the stairs purring and rubbing all against my ankles. If I'm gone for more than a few hours she'll run down the flight of stairs and greet me like a dog.

River (dog) on the other hand, if she didn't have to be crated would not run down the stairs to greet me. When I go out and don't crate her, upon my return I'll find her standing at the bottom of the stairs when I open up the front door and once she realizes it's me she'll give me a look like, "oh it's just you" and she'll walk away.

Not only is Tiggy the dog like greeter she prefers dog food to her cat food (both are dry kibble). The dog food is gumball sizes compared to her little kitty kibble but she manages to chomp it down every chance she manages to sneak into the kitchen and starts gobbling up River's food until I hear her. Tiggy also loves milk bones and can eat a whole one on her own.

River doesn't have a preference for cat food - she'll eat anything. But she does have the independent air about her like a cat and if someone walks past the house, she doesn't bark at them. River will stare at them through the window. If Tiggy could bark she'd probably bark!

Meowoof!

The Blind Leading the Blind

I just found out that a friend of mine who shall remain anonymous finally went to the optometrist recently after driving around for way too long with questionable vision. Turns out, she needed trifocals!!! She's only in her early 30s. I've never heard of anyone that young needing trifocals. I thought I had vision problems. At least I don't have to use the senior center presciption.

Anybody who thinks talk is cheap should get some legal advice. - Franklin P. Jones

Well, the wait has begun. Actually, it started over a week ago when I got my first acceptance. Nothing was in today's mail, sigh, this waiting is killing me. Some of the law schools that I applied to had an application dealine of March 1st and I haven't heard of any of those yet - very annoying. The law school that I was accepted to had a dealine of March 15th. What the hell is taking so long? It's really annoying to pretty much know you're going to have to move in about 4 months but you have no idea where you are moving.

I really hate the thought of moving but it's really out of my control. I've been living here in Nashville/Murfreesboro since the fall of 1998. I have spent more time here on my own (meaning having my own place since moving out of my parents house) than living in NJ where I first lived post parents. It's weird but this area feels more like home to me than anywhere else. NYC doesn't really feel like home to me because once I started attending Rutgers in 1989, New Brunswick, NJ became my home 9 months out of the year. I also spent the majority of winter and summer breaks in NJ because that's where all my friends from school lived. So until the fall of 1998 New Brunswick was pretty much my home after I got my own place in 1995. I'm so far removed from that time wise that NJ doesn't feel like home to me either anymore, it's just a warm memory.

The chances of my getting into Vandy are slim to none. This whole thing just really sux. I love living right next to a dairy farm and being able to see fields of cotton and corn when they're in season and being able to see and hear the cows. I love being able to actually see the starts at night while I'm out walking River because there's almost zero light pollution. Don't get me wrong I"m not in the boonies, I'm 25 minutes outside of Nashville and there's a large mall and a starbucks only 4 miles away. I just think it totally sux that I've made myself all comfortable and actually like where I'm at that I have to move - all of the possible locations are pretty much undesireable because they're not here.

Newt or Michael?

Newt or Michael?, originally uploaded by LykosAlpha.

For all of you who have the pleasure/displeasure of knowing my brother, he bears a startling resemblance to Newt Gingrich. Poor bastard (my brother that is).
Anyway, Michael if you are reading this - send me back my CD collection you bastard! My brother apparently is like the neighbor who borrows something and it ends up in their garage as their newly acquired property and you never see it again. I sent basically my entire CD collection to him so he could do whatever he wanted to with it (wink, wink). That was back in February. HELLOOOOOO, it's April! Not only has he taken advantage of my kindness, the mofo hasn't returned my phone calls or responded to my recent emails. I know he's not avoiding me on purpose - he's a busy guy but c'mon. If he doesn't send me my CDs back soon I'm gonna post a picture of him on here right beside good ol' Newt so everyone can see how much of a Republican nutjob he looks like.

F*** the University of TN and All Things Orange

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since January. Tsk, tsk, tsk, on my part. Well anyway, here's my rant....

Like the title says, "F*** the University of TN and All Things Orange" How dare those motherfu***** not admit me to their law school. Damn it! It would have been so damn perfect. I wouldn't have had to move far and the cheap ass tuition. I should have known it was too good to be true. As soon as I pulled that envelope out of my mailbox this afternoon and saw that it was from UT I knew it was a rejection letter since I unfortunately saw too many of those last year. Thankfully I know what a law school acceptance package looks like and it doesn't come in a regular sized business envelope.
In a strange way though I'm kinda glad that I didn't get into UT. Who the hell in their right mind would want to spend 3 years in Knoxville, TN?????? I have always hated all UT teams and living their would've been total hell with everyone wearing orange on game day, the stupid car flags, the endless T-shirts, license plates...I think I would've gone postal.

For those of you who don't know....I have found out that there is indeed a supreme being of some sort that apparently got sick and tired of me praying for me to get into any law school. That is, any of the law schools that I applied to. It also helps that I applied to quite a few law schools (that's putting it mildly) to stack the odds in my favor - but I did get in somewhere and it is accredited by the American Bar Association. Not only that, they've offered me a $16,000 merit scholarship renewable every year to make my life even better! Not only was I shocked to simply get in somewhere but to get a merit scholarship for that kinda dough? This kind of brought back flashbacks to my high school days, back when I was a nerd and got offered money to attend schools. Then there came Rutgers University and my career there academically was on par with our current President. So, I guess my stint at MTSU wasn't a waste and finding my inner geek again did help. All I have to say is - WHEW!!!!! What a freakin' sigh of relief. I got in somewhere and it's not a law school out of a store front next to a bodega. Yeah, I got my first rejection of this year but I have plenty of schools to hear back from.

I have a feeling I might have been accepted to the McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific in Cali. Didn't get an acceptance letter yet but I found out from one of their financial aide people who had contacted me b/c they needed further info from me that they only assign student ID numbers to applicants who have been admitted and lo and behold I have a student ID #. I really don't want to go all the way out there though. It's slightly better than where I was accepted but both places have their pluses and minuses. There are other Cali law schools that I applied to but attending a Cali law school was only if I hadn't been accepted somewhere east of the Mississippi. Moving to Cali would be a logistical nightmare with River and Tiggy and very expensive. Sacramento where McGeorge school of law is, is relatively affordable but all of the other locations are muy expensivo.

My chances of being accepted to Vanderbilt law are slim to none but if I don't get in there, I'll have to move somewhere and that kinda sux. I've been here for so long that it's home now. I love the NYC/NJ Metro area but really only b/c that's where my "peeps" are. Otherwise I hate it - so expensive to live and the commuting and all that crap sucks the life out of you. So far though I'm moving to New England which I guess wouldn't be so bad. It's not far from my real home but I loathe the thought of having to learn a whole new place again. I had to learn NJ - when I finally mastered that I moved here. Now that I know Middle, TN and all things barefoot and toothless I will have to move again.